WeChat***Jinlv.com (ID: CTCNN1), Author: Chen Jie, Editor: Zhuang Zhuang, title picture from: Visual China's Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Du Jiang recently publicly stated that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is planning a "three-year promotion plan for inbound tourism", which will promote the recovery of inbound tourism from many aspects in the future. Since the fourth quarter of this year, the official stimulus for inbound tourism has quietly accelerated, and the introduction of policies is unprecedented
On November 28, the railway department launched the identity verification service of foreign passport**, and foreign passengers no longer need to go to the railway station window to verify their identity information with the original passport when purchasing tickets at 12306**On December 1, China took the lead in implementing a visa-free entry policy for six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and MalaysiaOn December 7, China and Singapore jointly announced mutual visa exemptionOn December 11, the Consular Department announced that Chinese embassies and consulates abroad will charge 75% of the current fee for visa ...... within one year
The fundamental reasons why China has made such a strong effort to encourage inbound tourism are:In 2023, the recovery of inbound tourism will show a weak and weak trend, which will not only form a strong contrast with the positive growth of outbound tourism, but also directly cause an imbalance in the proportion of China's travel service import and export**As a result, the gold content of China's import and export services, which has been expanding in deficit, has dropped dramatically, affecting the healthy development of China's overall import and export.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in January and October this year, China's total import and export of services was 53,445300 million yuan, exports 21826700 million yuan, down 74%；Import 31618600 million yuan, an increase of 235%；Service ** deficit 9791900 million yuan. Among them, China's import and export of travel services is 11,833600 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 717%。Among them, exports increased by 538%, imports increased by 732%。
Although travel services are still the fastest-growing import and export services** sector in China, the growth is mainly driven by travel imports** represented by outbound travel, while travel exports**, represented by inbound travel, contribute little.
Statistics from the China Tourism Academy show that in the first half of this year, the number of inbound tourists received by travel agencies nationwide was 47780,000, which is only 856 in the same period in 2019160,000 of 158%。Beijing, the most popular city for inbound tourism, received a total of 901593 inbound tourists in January and October this year, which was only 28 of the 3203866 in the same period in 201914%。
It has long been a well-recognized fact that inbound tourism has been declining in the past decade.
2015 In 2019, Beijing, as the engine of inbound tourism, continued to decline in the number of overseas tourists, from 4199625 to 3768958, except for a slight increase of 2% year-on-year in 2018, the rest of the years were negative, and the growth rate in 2019 reached -590%, a new low in the five years before the epidemic.
Liang Jianzhang, the founder of Ctrip, publicly said at that time that if outbound travel doubled again in five years, and inbound tourism continued to stagnate, China would become a deficit country from the current **surplus country.
In 2024, the situation facing inbound tourism will still be severe, with overseas tourism companies lacking confidence in the Chinese market, disconnection between the upstream and downstream of the chain, low cost performance of products, imbalance in the source structure of tourists, and ...... loss of professional talents
If these core links cannot be changed and broken through, there is no way to talk about the recovery of inbound tourism.
One. In the first year after the epidemic, the recovery of the inbound tourism chain can be described as "turtle speed".
As the deputy general manager of CYTS International Tourism, he is responsible for the inbound tourism business of German-speaking European countries and the Americas all year round. When talking about the recovery of the inbound tourism chain, the inbound tourism veteran had no choice but to give a shocking figure: 15%.
Unlike the outside world imagining that in the past three years, inbound tourism companies have closed down in batches and practitioners have scattered, inbound tourism is a relatively subdivided and professional field, and the vast majority of enterprises have formed a strong "path dependence" over the years, and they have mostly chosen to lie dormant during the epidemic. When Zhou Zhanfeng resumed business with overseas group companies this year, he was very pleased to find that many old friends were there.
However, he found himself happy early.
Unlike Chinese companies, which are flexible and changeable, overseas companies pay more attention to business planning and continuity, especially in German-speaking countries that are known for their rigor and obedience. When Zhou Zhanfeng excitedly sent the inbound travel product plan to various overseas tour operators at the beginning of the year, after the other party expressed his welcome, he bluntly said without exception that the business plan for the whole year of 2023 has been arranged, and if you want to fully resume the sale of Chinese travel products locally, you can only consider including it in the 2024 business plan.
After a three-year absence, overseas tour operators who want to sell Chinese travel products again, whether it is marketing promotion, staffing, product portfolio, and capital allocation, do need to start all over again, and it will inevitably take more time.
And the Chinese ignore a fact:Chinese travel products are not just a product for overseas touristsIn addition, the international situation has been volatile in the past two years, and overseas tour operators also need to consider whether selling Chinese travel products is a profitable businessThe subtext is that there is a serious lack of confidence and trust in the Chinese market.
Faith is the best, and it's not a problem that can be solved in a moment.
Zhou Zhanfeng lamented that this wave of favorable policies at the end of the year will not see results until the second half of 2024 or the first half of 2025 at the earliest, but this year, Chinese tourism companies are paying more attention to major overseas tourism exhibitions, and each of them has sent a lot of business personnel to actively travel and negotiate, hoping to help overseas partners rebuild their confidence in the Chinese market through various ways.
Two. The domestic operators in the upstream of the inbound tourism chain are also trapped by new problems.
Under normal circumstances, in order to maintain the stability of the sales system of Chinese travel products in overseas markets, overseas tour operators and domestic local operators will sign a regular framework agreement on core resources such as hotels and cars (generally agreed in advance on holidays and specific time periods), and within a certain period of time, the resources will be maintained in a certain range as a whole.
Taking hotel supply as an example, at the end of 2023, the overseas group society will ask the domestic local agency to provide a list of the main cooperation landing reception hotels in 2024 and the agreement table.
However,The three-year epidemic has accelerated the online process of domestic tourism, and the hotel industry has become accustomed to flexibly adjusting inventory and pricing according to market changes on OTA and other first-class travel platforms to maximize operating revenue. This year, the supply and demand of domestic hotels are booming, **large**, and many hotels that have signed the annual **framework agreement early cannot be adjusted**, and they have made a lot of profits in vain, which makes them more reluctant to be bound by a paper agreement.
Some hotels are willing to offer an annual agreement**, but they will add some additional terms to the agreement. The hotel will indicate that the agreement** applies to a certain period of time or a certain date, and if the agreed time period and date are exceeded, the hotel agreement** will need to be renegotiated.
That's to the maximumTo ensure the maximization of the hotel's interests, but to cause the instability of the product system of inbound tour operators and overseas tour operators. For overseas tour operators, China is originally a long-term tourist destination, and the related travel products themselves are not low, if the price suddenly rises, the marketing rhythm of overseas tour operators will be disrupted, which is not conducive to sales.
In addition, with the full popularization of online real-name reservation and ticketing in scenic spots, inbound tour operators also need to grab tickets online if they want to obtain ticket resources for popular scenic spots.
This summer, overseas tourists to Beijing must check in the Forbidden City a ticket is hard to find, the inbound tour agency can not grab a ticket to the Forbidden City, the inbound tour group that is finally saved, foreign tourists to Beijing but can not enter the scenic spot, and finally work hard to coordinate the forces of all parties to coordinate the solution, scared that some local agencies do not dare to pick up more overseas tourists. Some practitioners bluntly said that losing money is a trivial matter, so that hundreds of foreigners come all the way to Beijing but can't enter any scenic spots, which will lead to international ** incidents and regret it.
After this incident, the domestic local agency and the overseas group company are apprehensive, and each other is aware that there has been an obvious disconnect between the upstream and downstream of the inbound tourism chain, and if there is no way to quickly solve the "off node" on the chain, whether this transaction can be done next year is unknown.
Three. The fluctuation of products caused by the instability of the inbound tourism chain has had a direct impact on the tourism consumption choices of overseas tourists. Although Europe is mostly developed and its per capita income is generally high, the primary consideration for locals to choose overseas travel destinations is the same as that of Chinese.
From a German's point of view, China is essentially no different from Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian countries, and is a long-term tourist destination very far away from him. Especially for many Germans who are making a long-haul trip to the region for the first time, they choose it for less money.
Overseas tourists care more about their travel budget than Chinese think.
The report pointed out that inbound tourists mainly use four-star hotels when choosing hotels, and cost-effective accommodation products are the first when choosing hotel types.
At this time, China was no longer the first choice of the Germans.
According to the report, while overseas tourists are searching for Chinese tourist destinations, they are focusing on Thailand (624%), Japan (517%), Malaysia (494%) and Vietnam (474%). Japan and Thailand, in particular, have become China's biggest competitors, attracting a large number of European tourists.
Zhou Zhanfeng gave a very interesting little case, the same Starbucks, an overseas tourist has a Starbucks in Beijing and a Starbucks in Tokyo, the former will be 10 yuan more expensive than the latter.
When these "10 yuan" are expensive, the more times they appear in various links such as transportation, hotels, cars, catering, and leisure, the lower the cost performance in China.
Four. Another potential issue that inbound tourism is about to faceThe customer source structure is seriously aging.
According to the "China Inbound Tourism Data Analysis Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") previously released by the World Tourism Alliance, according to the age structure:
From the above data, it is found that middle-aged and elderly people are the main body of inbound tourists, while young people are few.
Most of the European arrivals we receive are middle-aged and elderly, and most of them are 60 to 80 years old. Zhou Zhanfeng said that they have a strong interest in traveling to China, and some elderly people have already joined the group to come to China many times.
After the epidemic, this group of loyal middle-aged and elderly overseas tourists is rapidly decreasing, and young overseas tourists have not taken over.
Why are young people abroad less interested in China than their parents and grandparents?
BecauseWhether it is marketing promotion or product design, China currently lacks coping strategies and specific measures for overseas mainstream young people.
In terms of marketing and promotion, on the one hand, the overall efforts of China's major tourist destinations in overseas markets are far from enough. Zhou Zhanfeng recently went to Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province to investigate, and found that the city's tourism industry has changed greatly in just ten years. Then he habitually searched for the keyword "Jiujiang" on major overseas ** and social platforms, and found that not only did he not have any information about the new changes in Jiujiang tourism, but even the information about the place itself in Jiujiang was very little;On the other hand, like young people in China, young people overseas have already switched to the new social ** represented by TikTok, and although domestic tourist destinations are aware of the importance of social new ** marketing, there are few successful cases in actual operation.
In terms of product design, the traditional form of inbound tour group products is too old-fashioned. The routes, attractions, hotels and ways to play a classic inbound tour in Beijing in the early 90s are almost exactly the same as the classic inbound tour and group products in Beijing that we saw 30 years later. Many persons in charge of inbound tour agencies privately admit that their products have hardly changed over the years, but they are limited by various factors and do not know how to reform, so they are in a dilemma.
Is the inbound FIT more suitable and attractive to overseas young people?
Not long ago, there was a question on the Internet that "why don't foreigners come to China for tourism?".The 11 difficulties summarized answer this question very well, including: mobile phone roaming** excluding China, payment software binding trouble, can only live in a designated hotel to receive foreign guests and is easy to be slaughtered, various services require real-name system and do not support passport verification, public settings have no English logo and can not use Google, Facebook and other overseas mainstream social software can not be used ......
If these difficulties are not solved, it will be difficult for inbound tourism to travel freely.
Five. In addition, the more difficult it is to travel inbound to the country, the more important it is to ignore some key factors that will affect the long-term.
As a national gold medal tour guide and one of the professional foreign language tour guides who have been in the industry for more than 20 years, Dou Junjie has been campaigning for the rapid loss of professional foreign language tour guides for inbound tourism in the past two years.
In 2023, less than 40% of professional foreign language tour guides will return to work, and many practitioners around me have not returned, and they have permanently left the industry. ”
Dou Junjie sighed that the rate of loss of professional talent in this industry has reached an alarming level. In the next three years, there will be no more than three digits in Beijing to take the foreign language tour guide exam for inbound tourism, and the pass rate of participants will not be very high. And so onThe talent pool of professional foreign language tour guides for inbound tourism will be quickly exhausted, and the talent echelon will be completely cut off.
The training threshold for professional foreign language tour guides for inbound tourism is higher and the cycle is longer, and a total of tens of thousands of people have accumulated in the past few decades. This year, inbound tourism has just restarted, and it has felt the pressure of unprecedented brain drain, and once the recovery of inbound tourism accelerates, it is simply too late to temporarily train or find replacements.
At present, the government and the industry have not put forward corresponding encouragement and support measures, and it is hoped that under the promotion of all parties, in the follow-up policies to stimulate the recovery of inbound tourism, professional foreign language tour guides for inbound tourism will be included, and this link will not become the biggest shortcoming of inbound tourism recovery in the future.
Six. Inbound tourism practitioners are still trying to find a breakthrough.
In order to cope with the impact of rapid adjustment and change of domestic hotels, cars and other resources on the inbound tourism product system, a number of domestic local agencies have tried to unite with inbound tourism resource providers, hoping to attract the latter to reduce and ensure stability through stable and large demand, and effectively improve the cost performance of inbound tourism products.
In order to improve the structure of inbound tourists and attract more young people, Zhou Zhanfeng tried to call on China's various cultural and tourism bureaus to change their way of going it alone and turn to learning from the "regional model" of overseas tourist destinations, that is, multiple cultural and tourism bureaus cooperate to form a "region" to jointly go overseas for marketing and promotion, and the "region" includes different natural scenery, human geography attractions and gameplay. In this way, the volume of sound can be expanded geometrically, and more choices can be given to overseas tourists.
Dou Junjie reminded that inbound tourism products must be greatly innovated"Light customer acquisition mode", "strong start-up", "easy reception" and "can be standardized and copied".It is a must-have label, and then combined"Advanced scientific and technological elements" and "Chinese cultural elements".and other unique Chinese labels in order to make overseas tourists interested in China again.
At the same time, he suggested that the cultivation of professional foreign language tour guides for inbound tourism should be included in the cultural rejuvenation strategy, and the state should be unified and deployed, and the relevant teachers and front-line personnel should be recruited by the local cultural and tourism departments to form a complete set of systems in line with today's Chinese cultural export strategy.
"China also needs to create a more international inbound tourism experience atmosphere."
For example, for a period of time, many cities have canceled the English signs of subways, streets, and public facilities and changed them to pinyin. From the perspective of an overseas tourist in China, such a change is inconvenient for their travels and is not considered "friendly" enough to them.
Think about it differently, why Chinese people are always very excited and excited to see Chinese signs overseas, because we feel valued and respected by this country, this city, and naturally vote more for this place when choosing a tourist destination.
Zhou Zhanfeng**, this round of policies to stimulate inbound tourism is valid for one year, and it is estimated that it will be extended again next year. Next year, there will inevitably be more good news in terms of policies, which needs to be encouraged by the industry and ** to promote the continuous breakthrough of inbound tourism.
WeChat***Jinlv.com (ID: CTCNN1), Author: Chen Jie, Editor: Zhuang Zhuang This content is the author's independent view and does not represent the position of Tiger Sniff. Do not do without permission**, please contact hezuo@huxiu for authorizationcom
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